What Is Video Capture?

Video capture is a general computing and media production term for taking video from a source and encoding it into a stored file. The source can be the computer's display (screen capture), an external camera or webcam, a capture card connected to a game console or camera, or a broadcast signal. In the software world, "video capture" most commonly refers to display capture — recording what appears on the screen — but hardware video capture (using devices like Elgato or Blackmagic capture cards) uses the same conceptual framework. The result in both cases is a digital video file ready for playback, editing, or distribution.

Screen-based video capture differs from camera-based video capture in important ways. Display capture records a digital source — the pixels rendered by the GPU — which means there is no lens, no focus, no lighting, and no motion blur. The resulting video is pixel-perfect at the recorded resolution. Camera capture ingests an analog or digital video signal from a physical lens, introducing factors like depth of field, exposure, and compression artifacts from the camera sensor. For software demos and tutorials, display capture is preferred because the output is sharp, stable, and exactly what was on screen.

When people search for video capture software for macOS they are almost always looking for screen recording — capturing what happens on the display. Limelight is a native macOS video capture app focused on display capture: it records screen activity offline, applies auto-zoom to every click, surfaces keystrokes and a cursor spotlight during capture, and outputs a polished mp4 file or 9:16 vertical clip. It does not capture external camera feeds, keeping the tool focused and setup-free.